East Yorkshire poultry business staff are honoured to join exclusive poultry rearing club
The team at an award winning Middleton on the Wolds chicken business is celebrating after two of its employees joined an exclusive club that places them in the top 1% of the UK poultry industry.
Soanes Poultry's Farms' Manager, Mark Ireland and Assistant Farms' Manager, Keith Edeson, were both awarded theAviagen® UK Ross®400 Club award that celebrates the achievements of Ross broiler flock poultry farmers who have reached or exceeded a European Production Efficiency Factor (EPEF) of 400.
The EPEF measures production efficiency by taking into account a number of influences on performance, such as nutrition, feed efficiency, husbandry, and production management.
Of the achievement, Stuart Thomson, Aviagen UK Head of Sales and Technical, said: "Aspiring to be part of the Ross 400 Club is what inspires growers to work so hard to achieve their scores.
"It's great to welcome Mark and Keith to the Club. Membership has grown from just three to 350 members in the last nine years, and the high-scoring individuals in the 400 Club represent an exclusive top 1% of the UK poultry industry."
Soanes Poultry's General Manager, Nigel Upson, added: "We're delighted that two of our farming team have become members of the Ross400 Club. It's a great achievement by Mark and Keith that puts them up there alongside other distinguished growers in the Ross 400 Club's elite of British growers.
"Our lads have worked incredibly hard, paying attention to every detail of rearing to achieve this level of performance and coupled it with huge focus on welfare of the birds."
Nigel also added that Ross 400 Club membership was the perfect complement to the company's three 2018 Great Taste awards from the Guild of Fine Foods and ‘Supreme Champion' award for its chicken fillets at theDeliciouslyorkshire Taste Awards, 2017.
Soanes Poultry rears more than five million chickens per annum on its Yorkshire Wolds farms and supplies wholesalers, butchers, farm shops and independent retailers throughout the UK. It has won numerous awards for the taste of its chicken and its business credentials.
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Photo:L to R Keith Edeson, Stuart Thomson from Aviagen and Mark Ireland Soanes staff with Ross 400 certificates
For more information or to arrange an interview withNigel Upson,please contact Tracey Baty at three60 marketing on;
Direct line:01430 871360
Mobile:07971 961574
E mail:traceybaty@three60marketing.co.uk
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Notes to editors
1. For more information aboutSoanes Poultry, please visitwww.soanespoultry.co.uk.
2. Keep up to date withSoanes Poultry's news onFacebook,Twitterand the business bloghere.
3. Since 1923, Aviagen has established itself as the world's leading poultry breeding company, developing pedigree lines for the production of commercial broiler chickens under the Arbor Acres®, Indian River®, and Ross®brand names. The Rowan Range®and Specialty Males®are specialty breeding stock from Aviagen that offer greater flexibility for customers to meet specific or niche market requirements. The company is based in Huntsville, Alabama, USA with a number of wholly-owned operations across the United Kingdom, Europe, Turkey, Latin America, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the U.S., and joint ventures in Asia. Aviagen employs more than 3,900 people and has a distribution network serving customers in more than 100 countries. For further information, please visitwww.aviagen.com.
4. Soanes Poultry supplies its chicken to butchers and independent retailers in Yorkshire and to wholesalers nationwide.
5. The firm also sources game which it distributes through a game processor. For more information about game available fromSoanes Poultry, please visitwww.soanespoultry.co.uk/game.
6. Soanes Poultry is accredited under the BritishRetail Consortium Food Safety Standard A Grade and the Red Tractor Farm Assurance Standard.
7. Soanes Poultry was crowned winner of theEnvironmental Initiative of the Year category at the Meat and Poultry Processing Awards 2017.
8. In 2018,Soanes Poultry was awarded a one-starGreat Taste Awardfor its Yorkshire chicken fillets, its Yorkshire chicken supreme and its Yorkshire Christmas cockerel crown. In 2017, it also won a delicious. magazine produce award and was awarded supreme product at the deliciouslyorkshire awards.